Not You Too! Breezy Samples Rare Aaliyah Vocals For Tribute Song On New Album

Chris Brown announced his plans to use never-before-heard vocals from late R&B singer Aaliyah on his new single “They Don’t Know” at a BET Awards press conference on Tuesday, May 14, taking a cue from rival Drake, who did the same just last year, on track “Enough Said.”

The “Fine China” singer, 24, told reporters that the song will be part of his sixth album X, due out on July 16, and will feature “all new stuff that’s never been heard before.”

Other guests on the record will include Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Timbaland, Pharrell and more.
The embattled crooner shot the music video for the Aaliyah tribute song in Compton, Calif. over the weekend, explaining to reporters that he had a very specific artistic concept he wanted to get across in the video.

“I shot it in the hood,” he told reporters. “I went to 60th Street and Cedar Block. [I’m] bringing both worlds together and trying to uplift the poverty side of the community and show them where I’m from. I’m from Virginia, but everybody comes from a broken home or being broke — I remember when I was.”

According to Complex magazine, the shoot involved about 20 extras dressed in baggy jeans and shorts in typical ’90s West Coast wear, at times bopping to the beat on the sidewalk and at times appearing on a rooftop in South Central.

Do you think all this Aaliyah sampling is helping to keep her legacy alive or starting to seem like a gimmick?